ey, using extreme care, laid the two together, after an
examination of the other unbroken cigarettes had disclosed the fact
that none of them concealed anything.

"I got one, Warden! A beaut!" came Riley's voice from down the
corridor, and he came in with a wire cage containing a large rat which
cowered in one corner of his cell, even as Singa Phut had shrunk into
his when the end came.

"How you going to get at him, Colonel?" asked the warden. "They're
nasty to handle. One of 'em nipped my dog fierce when I gave him a
chance at killing it a day or so ago."

"I'm not going to let it out. If I had a stick, or something that I
could fasten the needle on, I could work a sort of javelin," remarked
the colonel.

"I'll get you one," offered Riley, much interested in the coming
experiment. Donovan, too, looked on in startled wonder.

A long, slender stick was brought and, using great care, with his
rubber gloves on that he used in autopsies, Doctor Warren fastened the
needle to the wand. Then Colonel Ashley thrust the improvised spear
through the wires of the cage and lightly punctured the rat, which gave
a protesting squeak.

"It didn't hurt him much," observed the colonel, "and, if I have
guessed right, his death will be painless."

"How soon?" asked Donovan.

"I can't say, but it ought not be very long. The kind of poison they
use is calculated to work swiftly."

In the glaring light from the nitrogen bulb they stood in the cell of
the dead man, gathered about the cage of the rat--a prison within a
prison. After the first start caused by the needle prick, the rodent
again shrank back into its corner. For perhaps ten minutes it remained
thus, and then it began to exhibit signs of uneasiness. It stood up on
its haunches and began to bite at the wires of the cage. It squeaked,
more as though uneasy than in pain,

In another minute it began to run around the tin floor of its prison,
and then it suddenly stopped in its tracks, fell over in a lump and was
still.

"Well, I'll be--" began Donovan, and then, with a look at the
colonel, he substituted: "This gets me! It sure does!"

"It evidently went right to the heart, just as in Singa Phut's case,"
observed the colonel grimly.

"You were right," said Doctor Warren, "it was poison. He probably
jabbed himself with the point of the needle, and whatever was smeared
on it did the rest. I shall be interested in making the autopsy."

"You will probably fi